Monthly Archives: November 2015

1718 – Swedish king Charles XII dies during a siege of the fortress Fredriksten in Norway.

1782 – American Revolutionary War: Treaty of Paris (1783) — In Paris, representatives from the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign preliminary peace articles (later formalized as the 1783 Treaty of Paris).

1786 – Peter Leopold Joseph of Habsburg-Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, promulgates a penal reform making his country the first state to abolish the death penalty.

1803 – In New Orleans, Louisiana, Spanish representatives officially transfer Louisiana Territory to a French representative. Just 20 days later, France transfers the same land to the United States as the Louisiana Purchase.

1804 – The Democratic-Republican-controlled United States Senate begins an impeachment trial against Federalist-partisan Supreme Court of the United States Justice Samuel Chase.

1824 – First ground is broken at Allenburg for the building of the original Welland Canal.

1829 – First Welland Canal opens for a trial run, 5 years to the day from the ground breaking.

1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Franklin — The Army of Tennessee led by General John Bell Hood mounts a dramatically unsuccessful frontal assault on Union positions commanded by John McAllister Schofield around Franklin, Tennessee (Hood lost six generals and almost a third of his troops).

1868 – The inauguration of a statue of King Charles XII of Sweden takes place in the King’s garden in Stockholm.

1872 – The first-ever international football match takes place at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England.

1953 – Edward Mutesa II, the kabaka (king) of Buganda is deposed and exiled to London by Sir Andrew Cohen, Governor of Uganda.

1954 – In Sylacauga, Alabama, United States, an 8.5 lb (3.86 kg) sulfide meteorite crashes through a roof and hits Mrs. Elizabeth Hodges in her living room after bouncing off her radio, giving her a bad bruise, in the only unequivocally known case of a human being hit by a rock from space.

1962 – The United Nations General Assembly elects U Thant of Burma as its 3rd UN Secretary-General.

1964 – The University of Patras is inaugurated.

1966 – Barbados becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

1967 – The People’s Republic of South Yemen becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

1967 – The Pakistan Peoples Party is founded by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who becomes its first Chairman later as the Head of state and Head of government after the 1971 Civil War.

1971 – Iran seizes the Greater and Lesser Tunbs from the United Arab Emirates.

1972 – Vietnam War: White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler tells the press there will be no more public announcements concerning American troop withdrawals from Vietnam due to the fact that troop levels are now down to 27,000.

1981 – Cold War: In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin to negotiate intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe (the meetings ended inconclusively on December 17).

1872 – Indian Wars: The Modoc War begins with the Battle of Lost River.

1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph for the first time.

1890 – The Meiji Constitution goes into effect in Japan and the first Diet convenes.

1890 – At West Point, New York, the United States Naval Academy defeats the United States Military Academy 24-0 in the first Army-Navy football game.

1893 – Ziqiang Institute, today known as Wuhan University, is founded by Zhang Zhidong, governor of Hubei and Hunan Provinces in late Qing Dynasty of China after his memorial to the throne is approved by the Qing Government.

1910 – The first US patent for inventing the traffic lights system is issued to Ernest Sirrine.

1915 – Fire destroys most of the buildings on Santa Catalina Island, California.

1922 – Howard Carter opens the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun to the public.

1929 – U.S. Admiral Richard Byrd becomes the first person to fly over the South Pole.

1934 – The Chicago Bears defeat the Detroit Lions 19-16 in the first nationally broadcast game.

1943 – The second session of AVNOJ, the Anti-fascist council of national liberation of Yugoslavia, is held in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina, determining the post-war ordering of the country.

1944 – The first surgery (on a human) to correct blue baby syndrome is performed by Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.

1945 – The Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia is declared.

1947 – The United Nations General Assembly votes to partition Palestine (The Partition Plan).

1950 – Korean War: North Korean and Chinese troops force United Nations forces to retreat from North Korea.

1952 – Korean War: U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.

1961 – Project Mercury: Mercury-Atlas 5 Mission – Enos, a chimpanzee, is launched into space. The spacecraft orbited the Earth twice and splashed-down off the coast of Puerto Rico.

1963 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

1990 – Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passes United Nations Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing “use all necessary means to uphold and implement” United Nations Security Council Resolution 660 “to restore international peace and security” if Iraq did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.

2005 – The new Croatian Communist Party (KPH) is founded in Vukovar.

2007 – The Armed Forces of the Philippines lay siege to The Peninsula Manila after soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes stage a mutiny.

2007 – A 7.4 magnitude earthquake occurs off the northern coast of Martinique. This affected the Eastern Caribbean as far north as Puerto Rico and as south as Trinidad.

Share this:

Like this:

Just a quick reminder – today is the last day to enter the giveaway of a brand new Kindle Fire: have you entered? You can if youclick hereor type inhttp://smarturl.it/1115fireinto your computer’s web browser.

Also, please be sure to pass this on to your family and friends as I am sure they would love an opportunity to win a new Fire, also!

Share this:

Like this:

1095 – On the last day of the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II appoints Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy and Count Raymond IV of Toulouse to lead the First Crusade to the Holy Land.

1443 – Skanderbeg and his forces liberate Kruja in Middle Albania and raise the Albanian flag.

1520 – After navigating through the South American strait, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

1582 – In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespere and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond for their marriage license.

1660 – At Gresham College, 12 men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray decide to found what is later known as the Royal Society.

1729 – Natchez Indians massacre 138 Frenchmen, 35 French women, and 56 children at Fort Rosalie, near the site of modern-day Natchez, Mississippi.

1785 – The Treaty of Hopewell is signed.

1814 – The Times in London is for the first time printed by automatic, steam powered presses built by the German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer, signaling the beginning of the availability of newspapers to a mass audience.

1964 – Vietnam War: National Security Council members agree to recommend that U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam.

1965 – Vietnam War: In response to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s call for “more flags” in Vietnam, Philippines President Elect Ferdinand Marcos announces he will send troops to help fight in South Vietnam.

1975 – East Timor declares its independence from Portugal.

1975 – As the World Turns and The Edge of Night, the final two American soap operas that had resisted going to pre-taped broadcasts, air their last live episodes.

1979 – The Mount Erebus disaster: An Air New Zealand DC-10 crashes into Mount Erebus on a sightseeing trip, killing all 257 people on board.

1982 – Representatives from 88 countries gather in Geneva to discuss world trade and ways to work toward aspects of free trade.

1984 – Over 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn are made Honorary Citizens of the United States.

1987 – South African Airways flight 295 crashes into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on-board.

1989 – Cold War: Velvet Revolution – In the face of protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces they will give up their monopoly on political power.

1919 – Kappa Kappa Psi, National Honorary Band Fraternity is founded in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

1924 – In New York City, the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is held.

1934 – Bank robber Baby Face Nelson dies in a shoot-out with the FBI.

1940 – In Romania, the ruling party Iron Guard arrests and executes over 60 of exiled King Carol II of Romania’s aides, including former minister Nicolae Iorga.

1940 – World War II: At the Battle of Cape Spartivento, the Royal Navy engages the Regia Marina in the Mediterranean Sea.

1942 – World War II: At Toulon, the French navy scuttles its ships and submarines to keep them out of Nazi hands.

1944 – World War II: An explosion at a RAF ammunition dump at Fauld, Staffordshire kills seventy people.

1954 – Alger Hiss is released from prison after serving 44 months for perjury.

1963 – The Convention on the Unification of Certain Points of Substantive Law on Patents for Invention is signed at Strasbourg.

1964 – Cold War: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appeals to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would “save humanity from the ultimate disaster.”

1965 – Vietnam War: The Pentagon tells U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson that if planned operations are to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam has to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000.

1971 – Mars 2 of the Soviet space program landed on Mars.

1973 – The Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States Senate votes 92 to 3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States (on December 6, the House confirmed him 387 to 35).

1975 – The Provisional IRA assassinates Ross McWhirter, after a press conference in which McWhirter announced a reward for the capture of those responsible for multiple bombings and shootings across England.

1978 – In San Francisco, California, city mayor George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk are assassinated by former supervisor Dan White.

Share this:

Like this:

Black Friday is officially tomorrow here in the USA – someone forgot to tell the retailers, or the majority of them colluded to start the deals today – and earler – on Thanksgiving (although I am sure they will have a heck of a lot of them tomorrow).

That also includes Amazon, as they have really started rolling out the deals. Get your Christmas shopping done from the comfort of home, and avoid the long lines at the stores in your area. You can check out the Amazon deals if you click here or type http://smarturl.it/amazonbfriday into your web browser. If you click this link, you will also note Kindles and Fires have been significantly discounted, also.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I have a lot to be thankful for and I appreciate each of you – I hope all of you have a great day today, don’t eat so much that you get uncomfortable, and hopefully you get to spend it with your friends and family! As for me, I’m with my family smelling the turkey cooking away…

The Thanksgiving Challenge Update

Last week, I sent out an email for the blog’s annual Thanksgiving challenge: while we are celebrating Thanksgiving here in the USA there are, unfortunately, millions of people who have no idea where there next meal will materialize let alone what will they eat on Thanksgiving Day.

This year marks the fifth year I’ve run a promotion around Thanksgiving, where 100% of the net proceeds (sales less Amazon’s percentage of the take) is donated to a charity. So from now through the end of the month, if you purchase the title mentioned below I will donate 100% of the net proceeds to the East Texas Foodbank. These people can stretch a dollar – they can make just $1.00 feed 8 people, and have a mission of feeding children and the working poor throughout 26 counties in East Texas: in fiscal year 2014, they provided 20.2 million meals.

Let’s talk about the economics: the book is priced at $2.99 in order to maximize Amazon’s commission structure. At $2.99, that puts the commission at 70% (Amazon only pays authors 30% of the sales price if it is priced at $2.98 or less). To make the math simple, if you purchase the book you will feed 17 people. I hope I am writing a big check to the East Texas Food Bank – as of today, the blog’s readers have now purchased over 2,000 meals!

So, what’s the book? I thought I would combine a food payoff with a food winner with a small Kindle book of my own personal recipes for authentic Tex-Mex beef and chicken fajitas. Yes, I’ve won a couple of contests with it (DizzyDean used to say something to the effect of “It ain’t bragging if you can do it.”), and they taste damn good if I do say so myself. Don’t settle for some store-bought concoction when you can have a little fun making it yourself. To compliment the fajita recipes, I’m also including easy-to-make recipes for pico de gallo, guacamole, and marinated onions. It’s no frills, easy to read and follow.

If you’ll click the link above, for less than the price of a Starbucks you can provide 17 meals to people who would otherwise go hungry. We have a vibrant community here, and I think our collective efforts can help a lot of folks.

If you do purchase the book, I appreciate it – I’ll give a final update on where we stand at the end of the month.

1909 – Sigma Alpha Mu is founded in the City College of New York by 8 Jewish young men.

1917 – The National Hockey League is formed, with the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, and Toronto Arenas as its first teams.

1918 – The Podgorica Assembly votes for “union of the people,” declaring assimilation into the Kingdom of Serbia.

1922 – Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first people to enter the tomb of Egyptian King Tutankhamun in over 3000 years.

1922 – Toll of the Sea debuts as the first general release film to use two-tone Technicolor (The Gulf Between was the first film to do so but it was not widely distributed).

1939 – Shelling of Mainila: The Soviet Army orchestrates the incident which is used to justify the start of the Winter War with Finland four days later.

1941 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

1942 – Holocaust: Shoah: 572 Norwegian Jews are deported to Auschwitz on the cargo vessel Donau. This was the first step on the journey to the death camp Auschwitz. Altogether the total number of Jews deported from Norway on this trip was 767. 25 of the deported survived.

1942 – World War II: Yugoslav Partisans convene the first meeting of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia at Bihac in northwestern Bosnia.

1950 – Korean War: Troops from the People’s Republic of China launch a massive counterattack in North Korea against South Korean and American forces (Battle of Chosin Reservoir), ending any hopes of a quick end to the conflict.

1965 – In the Hammaguir launch facility in the Sahara Desert, France launches a Diamant-A rocket with its first satellite, Asterix-1 on board, becoming the third country to enter outer space.

1968 – Vietnam War: United States Air Force helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire and is later awarded the Medal of Honor.

1970 – In Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, 1.5 inches (38.1mm) of rain fall in a minute, the heaviest rainfall ever on record.

1977 – ‘Vrillon,’ claiming to be the representative of the ‘Ashtar Galactic Command’, takes over Britain’s Southern Television for six minutes at 5:12 PM.